Sports betting officially gets underway in Delaware

SportsPulse: Supreme Court reporter Richard Wolf breaks down the SCOTUS ruling on sports betting in the United States, and what it could mean for the future of gambling in professional and college sports.
USA TODAY Sports

DOVER, Del. — Delaware Gov. John Carney held a $10 bill with both hands before he handed it over to the sportsbook teller Tuesday afternoon.

Seconds later, Carney grasped the first single-game wager placed legally in the U.S. outside of Nevada in decades; a bet that his beloved Philadelphia Phillies would beat the Chicago Cubs.

“Gloating in this business doesn’t last very long,” Carney said inside the Dover Downs Hotel and Casino sportsbook. “We are happy to be first today. I don’t expect we will be the only one very long, but today it feels very good to be first.”

As Carney chatted with a gaggle of reporters, the second, third, fourth and fifth bets were placed – and the bettor made sure to let everyone know.

“Ready to roll! We are ready to roll,” screamed Stu Feiner, a well-known sports gambling advisor who traveled from Long Island to place $500 bets on the Pirates, Padres, Orioles and Reds.

Feiner told USA TODAY Sports he expected to gamble a total of $5,000 on Tuesday.

“I take dog (expletive) teams against the better teams,” Feiner explained. “I want to be in a room where there’s 100 people on one side and I’m the only one on the other.”

The news media here for the launch of sports betting far outnumbered those placing bets in the first hour after the sportsbook opened.

A couple hours after sports bet commenced in Delaware at 1:30 p.m. local time, there was a constant flow of bettors looking over the betting sheets heading to the counters to place bets.

There were also times that the four tellers on duty had nobody to wait on.

Ernie Anderson from the nearby town of Smyrna was eyeing Game 3 of the NBA Finals, unsure whether to put his money on the Golden State Warriors or Cleveland Cavaliers.

"They play tomorrow, so I have some time look at it," Anderson said. "Every year, a friend of mine goes to Vegas and I send him with some (money). Now, I don't have to do that."

Just as Delaware was the first state to enter the union, others will likely join the fray in the coming weeks.

That list includes two neighboring states: New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Delaware’s gambling is limited to three existing horse tracks/casinos, and those three locations had combined for nearly $170,000 in wagers in the first three hours. Along with single-game betting, Delaware also now offers future betting.

While its overseen by the Delaware Lottery, Carney said sports wagering won’t be available – at least anytime soon – at the approximately 100 lottery locations where parlay wagering on NFL games have been offered since 2009.

“We have pretty modest expectations,” Curley said. “There is going to be competition from New Jersey and the other states. That will keep bettors in their home areas as opposed to coming over here. It’s more of a tourism play to enhance the experience for the people who already come to Delaware. “

Richard Geisenberger the state’s secretary of finance, told USA TODAY Sports that tax revenue related to sports betting could actually be flat once other states commence sports betting.

“I am pretty confident the handle (the total amount bet) will go up,” Geisenberger said. “The question is whether the state’s take and the casino’s take shrink or grow because the margins (for single-game wagering) is much lower. I think there’s a chance that could it be lower. Our goal is to maintain what we have.”

Even though Delaware fought (and lost) to expand into single-game betting a decade ago in a federal appeals court, the state had a lock in the East Coast on one of the most popular forms of sports betting: NFL parlay wagering.

That ended last month when the Supreme Court overturned Amateur Sports Protection Act, federal legislation that grandfathered Delaware in and allowed them to offer three-team NFL parlay bets.

About $46 million was wagered each of the last two years on parlays in Delaware. While the state has averaged about $5-6 million in revenue from parlay wagering outside a dip to $2.2 million in 2017.

"It's still a very small percentage compared of the overall $205 million the state takes each year between the traditional lottery, table games, keno and video lottery machines," Geisenberger